Building Resilience: Strategies to Bounce Back from Adversity
Building Resilience: Strategies to Bounce Back from Adversity
Written by Lily Thrope
While life can be full of joyful moments, we will inevitably face difficult times. Job losses, health issues, break ups, illness, the list goes on. As we go through life, we can expect to encounter adversity, and this can take a toll on our mental health. That’s why it’s important to build resilience in one’s life. Resilience enables us to endure difficult life events and hopefully grow stronger. Developing resilience, by definition, is challenging but not impossible. If you are looking to establish resilience in your life, see below for a few suggestions:
Create strong self-care habits.
While this seems obvious, it is essential to take good care of your body, mind and spirit. Think about a time when you have been overwhelmed by something troubling you and suddenly you break out in an itchy rash. Or, after a long day at work putting out many fires, you end up with a migraine. Stress manifests physical symptoms, thus, it’s important to manage these emotions with supportive, healthful habits. Self-care is different for everyone, but I strongly recommend getting sufficient rest, embracing joyful movement, eating nourishing foods, and connecting with nature.
Maintain a positive mindset.
Keeping a positive and optimistic mindset is an important method in managing our life’s challenges. Our perception of adversity greatly influences our ability to overcome it. A resilient mindset sees challenges as opportunities for growth, rather than insurmountable barriers. An example of maintaining a positive mindset - try a ‘gratitude’ exercise and list 10 things you are grateful for. You can also try meditation and train yourself to pay attention to the world around you. When you have a bigger perspective, individual troubles become more collective. Think to yourself: ‘I am not the only one going through this.’
Maintain a strong support network.
Having a healthy support system is pivotal in building resilience. It is helpful to have a safe, reliable, and trustworthy group of people to lean on in times of stress. It’s also worthwhile to acknowledge that friends and family can be helpful for some things but not for others. It is okay if you have different people you go to for different things. For example, you might be able to talk about family stuff with an older friend, but prefer to discuss relationships with a different friend. Knowing who you can go to for support is key in developing resilience.
Set goals.
Having goals and aspirations that you want to achieve is super important in maintaining resilience and overcoming adversity. However, be mindful in setting your goals. If you are going through something difficult in your life right now, it’s important not to create goals that will be difficult to achieve in your moment of healing. Start small and break up your goal into achievable chunks.
Learn and reflect on the past.
Making mistakes is a part of life. What’s important is that we learn from our past mistakes and see how we can do better or differently in the future. This is a major part of overcoming adversity and building strong resilience skills. A tip I recommend: write down a few difficult past events and how you dealt with them. This can help expose patterns in your behavior and ultimately guide your future decisions.
Seek professional help.
While self-help strategies are effective, seeking professional help can greatly improve your journey in building resistance. Mental health professionals can provide specialized tools and interventions to assist you in navigating complex challenges. If you are interested in making an appointment to speak to a mental health professional, feel free to schedule your free 15 minute consultation. We at Thrope Therapy are offering in-person and virtual sessions today.
